In the spirit of better late than never, my spouse and I, along with a couple of in laws, visited a local treasure, the Roberson Museum, for its annual Home for the Holidays yesterday afternoon.
I thought you might enjoy these ornaments from a needlework based tree even though Christmas 2025 is gone and it's New Year's Eve.
Here is a video if you want to see more of the exhibit.
Joining Sandee at Comedy Plus for her #WordlessWednesday, and wishing all my readers a Happy New Year.
From earlier this week, a building lobby decorated for Christmas.
Joining Lisa at This and That: A Blog, for her #ShadowshotSunday.
Yesterday, I ate lunch at a local restaurant.
Joining Sandee at Comedy Plus for her #WordlessWednesday.
For this Christmas Day's Wordless Wednesday, we go back earlier this year to a visit to MacKenzie-Childs in Aurora, New York.
Enjoy.
So hard to believe this is the last 2024 #WordlessWednesday, brought to you by Sandee at Comedy Plus, Time has gone too quickly.
Today is special to both Christians and Jews, and so:
Merry Christmas to my readers who celebrate Christmas. And Happy Hanukkah to my readers who celebrate Hanukkah.
May today be a special day for all of my readers.
Today, my Shadowshot is from a previous year, since I was not able to go visiting my two favorite places that are decorated for Christmas.
So, from a past display, this is one of them.
Joining Lisa at Lisa's Garden Adventures for her #ShadowshotSunday.
Saw this Santa in a facility we were visiting earlier this month.
Joining Sandee at Comedy Plus for her #WordlessWednesday.
In past years, I might have shown you pictures of snow covered trees. This year, those pictures have been scarce.
Our climate is changing. I remember back to when my son (now in his 30's) was a toddler and he would play in snow tunnels dug under the two or three feet of snow accumulated by now. Now, we have rain. And some temperatures close to record highs for late December.
In November, our area was reclassed by the USDA from gardening zone 5b (minimum temperatures -15F to -10F, or -26.6 C to - 21.6 C) to 6a (minimum temperatures -10F to -5F or -23.3 C to - 20.6C)-. Many parts of the country were similarly reclassed, with increases in minimum temperature of 3F (us) to 5F (Tampa, Florida, where I lived years ago).
A new gardening zone for a new year.
Maybe now I can try to grow camillas again.
But back to the trees.
This picture was taken in Otsiningo Park on December 20.
But there is one constant for December besides below freezing temperatures - decorated trees for the Christmas holiday.
These were taken at an annual event called Home for the Holidays that same day.
If you want to see a former mansion with decorated trees, you've come to the right place. I didn't look to see if these were real trees - I doubt it, but if they aren't it's good, in a way, to know that living trees weren't sacrificed for a few days of beauty. Of course, a lot of wood was used in the building of this mansion, as you can see.
Trees give us so much.
The window is beautiful, but oh those trees.
Thank you, trees, for all of this.
Joining Parul at Happiness and Food the last time in 2023 for her #ThursdayTreeLove.
More from Home for the Holidays at Binghamton, New York's Roberson Center and Science Museum. Part of this museum is located inside the former mansion of Alonzo Roberson, who made his fortune in lumber. With no children to leave the building to, he and his wife donated their mansion to the community to be used as an educational facility. Each December, they decorate for Christmas.
Joining Sandee at Comedy Plus for her #WordlessWednesday.
More tomorrow.
It's December 26, Boxing Day in various countries (not here in the United States). Christmas technically is over, but let's have Christmas lights and decorations for a few more days.
For years, Home for the Holidays has been an annual tradition at Binghamton, New York's Roberson Center and Science Museum. Roberson dresses itself up with Christmas trees in every nook and cranny, but if you don't know the secret of Home for the Holidays, you miss the best part.
We didn't go until last Friday but it's never too late for beauty.
A portion of Roberson Center is located in the Alonzo Roberson mansion, completed in 1907. You access it from the upper floors of the museum. For Home for the Holidays, the mansion is open to the public and its decorations are breathtaking. So if you go, be sure to look for the sign pointing towards the mansion entrance. The decorations will be up until January 5.
Let's find the secret entrance (well, not really but you have to read the brochure) and go in.
Even more trees.
You can go up the staircase and see even more. Do you want to?
It's Monday, it's the day many have been waiting for. It's Christmas, and it's time for Music Moves Me!
Who are the Music Moves Me bloggers? We're a jolly group into holiday spirit. We blog about music each Sunday or Monday and if you have music to share with us, you are most welcome to join! (Music Posts Only-meaning at least one music video, please!) Our head host is Xmas Dolly, and our co-hosts are Cathy from Curious as a Cathy, joined by the knowledgeable Stacy of Stacy Uncorked and yours truly.
For
the month of December, we've traditionally had holiday music. Why not some more today? But first....
Ms. Love is also known for her signature song, "Christmas (Baby Please Come Home)". Here's her duet with Cher in the 2023 lighting of the Rockefeller Center Christmas tree.
I first heard the next song in the movie Home Alone, and I only found out recently, from another Music Moves Me blogger, that this was performed in 1954 by The Drifters. Here's what has become my favorite cover of White Christmas.
Next, let's get comfy. I'd like to share a childhood memory with you. I grew up in New York City in the 1950's and 1960's. One of our local station used to preempt their nighttime programming on Christmas Eve and play Christmas music with a clip of a log burning at the Mayor's residence (Gracie Mansion). This show would be on for around four hours. Today, through the magic of the Internet, I can show you a web site devoted to that Yule Log.
Here's a sample of the music from 1971, if you are interested.
Finally, one of my favorite modern Christmas songs - Christmas Wrapping from The Waitresses.
And that's a Christmas wrap, plus it's the last Music Moves Me for 2023. May your day, regardless of if you celebrate Christmas, be merry and bright. (Truthfully, I could skip the snow part.)
Join me again next week after we ring in 2024.
The caroling is open to the public, and I came to enjoy it, but also to see how it has changed.
I didn't take a picture of the outside of the building because I got there just about as the caroling was supposed to begin, so here is a picture from May 14, 2020. This building was built in 1904 and will be celebrating its 120th anniversary next year.
It has a beautiful lobby full of marble.
The lobby ceiling.
The only thing I'm lacking is music.
I spent well over an hour trying to upload a video I took to You Tube. I never figured it out - I kept getting a message that I needed to take a 30 second video of myself and wait at least a day for verification. I also tried to upload it directly from my phone to the blog, but it was a 28 MB file and I don't know what ended up happening to it.
So why bittersweet? Because fewer members of the public showed up. Because there were fewer employees of the building's two major employers singing than in the past (I'm sure that hybrid work schedules had something to do with that). Fewer people playing instruments. It just wasn't the same.
But is anything still the same? Change is a constant in our lives.
The TV coverage (available on You Tube) had mostly interviews and next to no music, but no matter.
Here's a post from 2018 with the way it sounded back then.
Seen at the George F. Johnson Memorial Library in Endicott, New York.
There are also outdoor displays (not of booktrees) but they involved inflatables and they had the air removed at the time.
Merry Early Christmas to my Wordless Wednesday readers who celebrate.
Joining Sandee at Comedy Plus for #WordlessWednesday.
It's Monday, it's only a week before Christmas, and it's time for Music Moves Me!
Who are the Music Moves Me bloggers? We're a jolly group into holiday spirit. We blog about music each Sunday or Monday and if you have music to share with us, you are most welcome to join! (Music Posts Only-meaning at least one music video, please!) Our head host is Xmas Dolly, and our co-hosts are Cathy from Curious as a Cathy, joined by the knowledgeable Stacy of Stacy Uncorked and yours truly.
For the month of December, we've traditionally had holiday music. There is so much Christmas music out there, and it's hard to decide where to go this week.
I think I know, though.
Here's a six year old boy performing Little Drummer Boy with André Rieu and his Orchestra. This was one of my favorite carols in my childhood.
Remember Dueling Banjos? Why not Dueling Jingle Bells from the United States Navy Band? The song gets a little lost, but it's all good.The House of Scotland Pipe Band and Deck the Halls.
Dropkick Murphys and The Season's Upon Us. One of the funniest Christmas songs and videos ever.
I haven't posted any parody songs this holiday season. I'll fix that omission now with Bob and Doug MacKenzie's Twelve Days of Christmas.
I wish all my readers Peace, Love and Joy this coming week.
Join me again next week for another episode of Music Moves Me.
I took this picture from a TV program on my television in late November. I hope the TV network people don't mind.
Just a few days before, it was growing peacefully in Vestal, New York, perhaps a mile or two from where spouse and I exercise walk on the Vestal Rail Trail. To the best of my knowledge, I never saw it while it was in the ground.
It is (or was) a Norway Spruce, 80 feet (24.38 m) tall, 43 feet (13.11 m) wide, weighing 12 tons (10,886 kg). Each year there is a hunt for the perfect tree for Rockefeller Center, continuing a tradition begun in 1931 by construction workers building the Center.
It's considered a great honor for your tree to be chosen - it must fit into several specific requirements. The homeowner or land owner doesn't get paid, but they can attend the ceremony if they wish.
Here's the story of the person who donated the tree - a social worker and assistant professor at Binghamton University.
It is lit daily, starting November 29, through January 13, 2024, with some 50,000 energy saving LED lights and a 900 pound (408.23 kg) star tops it.
I can be sad about the death of this 80-85 year old tree (its estimated age) but this tree will bring joy to so many people visiting or living New York City this holiday season. After its reign is over, it will be milled into lumber for use by Habitat for Humanity.
And the donor will receive a new tree.
Joining Parul at Happiness and Food for #ThursdayTreeLove.
Every year, it's become a holiday tradition on my blog to rerun a post from 2009 about Blue Christmases. This year, I' not going to do it. Instead, I am going to write a new post from scratch.
Many of us enjoy the December holiday of our faith or ethnic heritage, be it Christmas, Hanukkah, or something else. But that feeling of joy isn't universal.
I've been there (more than once) but I haven't had it rough the way many in our world are having it now.
War. Famine. Fear of persecution. Involuntary separation from family. Sickness (COVID is on the rise here in the United States, along with the more traditional flu and RSV). Death. Gun violence. Weather. It's a long list.
There are the people in several communities in Tennessee who experienced tornadoes the other day.
There are the people in Texas, in Las Vegas, in Maine, and in many other places, who are suffering due to mass shootings these past months. It's become an everyday occurrence.
Someone I work with lost his mother a couple of weeks ago. Another person lost his father.
But they are supposed to be happy? Really?
At least in the United States, Christmas is everywhere, and I do mean everywhere. It starts in August.
It's in full swing now.
Maybe you wonder why you didn't have the strength to decorate this year. Or you wondered if you dared put out outdoor displays proving you were an "other": not a member of the dominant faith. Or you are sick of the whole package. You want out.
I'm here to say "Don't feel ashamed. Don't question your feelings. Don't put yourself down."
I remember the year my father in law went to bed on Christmas night (we were there visiting and staying overnight) and was no longer with us the following morning. We spent the day after Christmas planning his funeral and notifying family and friends.
I remember when my mother in law died the day after Thanksgiving, five years ago. I so didn't want to be around Christmas. My spouse, my grown son and visited relatives in New York City. We didn't go into Manhattan. We didn't see the Rockefeller Center tree. We didn't look at the decorated store windows in Midtown. We avoided Christmas all we could. On Christmas Day we went to a movie and then to a kosher deli for dinner.
That's what I needed and I'm grateful I had family to make it happen.
It has been said many times, many ways, that "Blue Christmas" is more than an Elvis song. For those who have experienced loss: loss of a loved one, loss of a relationship, loss of a job, loss of feelings of safety, the month of December is hard. Wherever you go in these United States, you are surrounded by smiling Santas, by holiday decorations. There are endless carols blaring at work, at the supermarket, at the mall, all hinting that everyone is happy. Except you.
It's OK to feel that way. I can guarantee you are not alone, both in the secular world and the religious world.
Several Christian denominations commemorate Blue Christmas with a special service on the day of the Winter Solstice, the longest night of the year. These services recognize the grief and pain of those attending the services. These services may be opened to those of all faiths or no faiths. Other religions (such as Judaism) have their ways of recognizing this sadness, too.
I hope you find something to help you through the hard times. And I hope that, eventually, things will get better for you.
It's Monday, and it's time for holiday music.
Let's introduce the Music Moves Me bloggers. We blog about music each Sunday or Monday and if you have music to share with us, you are most welcome to join! (Music Posts Only-meaning at least one music video, please!) Our head host is Xmas Dolly, and our co-hosts are Cathy from Curious as a Cathy, joined by the knowledgeable Stacy of Stacy Uncorked and yours truly.
For the month of December, we've traditionally had holiday music. Last week, we had a great variety. There is so much Christmas music out there, and I have to admit, I'm a bit more partial to Christmas songs from my childhood. More about that in a moment.
But first, as it is still Hanukkah, the Jewish Festival of Lights, my first selection will be in honor of Time's Person of the Year, Taylor Swift. Presenting Jewish a capella group Six13 with their 2023 Hanukkah song, Era-lution of Taylor Swift (Chanukah's Version). Highlights of 14 Taylor Swift songs rewritten for Hanukkah joy await you.
The rest of my Christmas selections today were all written or co-written by Jewish songwriters. I've blogged about this before and I have to admit, I am so thrilled to announce my first selection.
Brenda Lee and "Rockin' Around The Christmas Tree" have hit #1 this year on the Billboard Hot 100 (it only took 65 years!) and Ms. Lee has become the oldest artist (she will turn 79 on December 12) to hit #1, taking the crown away from Louis Armstrong. Here Brenda Lee is in her first video for this song, joined (through cameos, not singing) by Trisha Yearwood and Tanya Tucker. This song was written by Johnny Marks.
Winter Wonderland has a sad backstory. This was co-written by Felix Bernard (Jewish composer) with lyrics by Richard B. Smith (not Jewish) in 1934 at a time when Smith was undergoing treatment for tuberculosis. Sadly, Smith died the following year. This recording by Perry Como dates from 1946.
And one more sad story. Perhaps the all time #1 Christmas song, White Christmas, is another song written by a Jewish songwriter (Irving Berlin, born Israel Isidore Beilin or Baline in Siberia). Sadly, Irving Berlin's son Irving Baline died on Christmas Day 1928, less than a month after he was born. I'm partial to the Drifter's 1954 doo-wop cover.
And that's a wrap!
Join me again next week for another holiday episode of MusicMovesMe.
Seen in a gift shop and the local mall.
Santa's home in the Mall.
And the train that brought him.
Joining Sandee at Comedy Plus for her #WordlessWednesday.
It's the first Monday of December and it's time for music.
Let's introduce the Music Moves Me bloggers. We blog about music each Sunday or Monday and if you have music to share with us, you are most welcome to join! (Music Posts Only-meaning at least one music video, please!) Our head host is Xmas Dolly, and our co-hosts are Cathy from Curious as a Cathy, joined by the knowledgeable Stacy of Stacy Uncorked and yours truly.
For the month of December, we've traditionally had holiday music. For many (not all) of our Music Moves Me bloggers that means Christmas music, and I will have that starting next Monday.
As for today, the Jewish holiday of Hanukkah begins at sundown this Thursday, December 7, and runs for eight days and nights.
I believe that it's more important than ever to feature music related to Hanukkah. These aren't necessarily religious songs. You'll even recognize some of the artists. But before I dive into my post, I am going to play one Christmas song in honor of the late Shane MacGowan of The Pogues, who passed away November 30 of pneumonia, a week after he had been released from the hospital. He was 65.
I can not listen to this song without crying. Here is their classic Fairytale of New York.
Let's start the Hanukkah celebration with a Neil Diamond song, a cover of a song first performed by comedian Adam Sandler on Saturday Night Live. Here comes Neil (with a tiny change in lyrics) singing The Hanukkah Song .
The Muppets and Sesame Street characters sing the Hanukkah song Sevivon.
Did you know that Woody Guthrie wrote a Hanukkah song? He did and here it is, covered by The Indigo Girls: Happy Joyous Hanukkah. The lyrics were co-written with his Jewish mother in law Aliza Greenblatt in the 1940's when Guthrie lived in Brooklyn (a borough of New York City) and was involved in the Jewish community in Coney Island. After his death, the song was rediscovered in 1998 by Guthrie's daughter Nora Guthrie.
Then, there are the Jewish a capella groups who take songs we know and turn them into parody songs celebrating the holiday with a fun dose of education.
Here is the Y-Studs, one of these groups, and their 2023 release: You Can Light With Me (A Taylor Swift Hanukkah).But here's my favorite of the Hanukkah parody genre.
Six13 and Bohemian Chanukah. (The air guitar is absolutely amazing).
And that's a wrap.
Join me again next week for another episode of Music Moves Me.
From O Tannenbaum, the annual Christmas display and silent auction held at the Tioga County (New York) Historical Society.
It's a Bee-Butterfly? I think it's Bee-Utiful.
A decorated carriage. After all, it's a historical society.
Gift Shop one view.
Gift Shop another view. There used to be a wonderful store in the town called The Hand of Man and I see their hand in the gift shop.
The exhibits range from trees (I'll show more in December) to exhibits on vintage toys.
Joining Sandee at Comedy Plus for #WordlessWednesday.
The movie Barbie was a tremendous success here in the United States and worldwide, grossing over $1.38 million U.S. dollars. I still haven't seen the movie, but I owned a Barbie in my youth, and I would love to see the movie one day.
Earlier this month, I had the next best thing.
The annual O Tannenbaum Christmas display and auction at the Tioga County, New York Historical Society is up and running, and the entries will be on display until December 16. Many of these trees (actually, just the ornaments) are auctioned off in a silent auction. A clipboard with a sheet is next to each tree and people write their bids there.
This year there were at least three Barbie inspired trees.
I did get a closeup of this tree, which included some Hallmark ornaments.
For those of my readers who celebrate Christmas, do you do themed trees in your house?
